00:02Democracy and rights are declining in Africa as leaders take their cues from the rise of strongmen in other parts
00:09of the world.
00:11Maui Ibrahim, a billionaire philanthropist who monitors governance across Africa, has said...
00:21We can see this phenomena of the rise of strongmen everywhere.
00:27A lot of strongmen, you know, and liberal democracy is having problems in even major democratic countries.
00:41And African leaders are part of this global environment.
00:47And if you are an African leader and you see all those strong people rising from everywhere,
00:55it's not only in Russia, everywhere. And they say, why not me too?
01:00Ibrahim highlighted elections over the past year in Tanzania where security forces were accused of killing thousands of protesters
01:08in Uganda where the opposition leader was forced to flee the country.
01:11Well, people do what they can under circumstances. Of course, there's suppression, there's violence.
01:19And we have seen that everywhere. We've seen that in Tanzania.
01:24How many young people were killed in Tanzania before the so-called election?
01:29And only for the president incumbent to stay in power and say, I won 99% of the vote.
01:38But if you're winning 99% of the vote, why you need to shoot at the opposition or imprison people?
01:47The index found that 30 countries had better overall governance scores in 2025, thanks largely to improved economies.
01:55It is a sudden, sudden termination and dismantling of USAID.
02:02I mean, it would have been nice to give notice, you know.
02:05If you want to resign, usually give notice so the people can sort themselves out.
02:10That was brutal in that sense. Of course, it is a, you know, prerogative of US to give aid or
02:20not.
02:21And that is their decision. It's just please give note.
02:27Seven of the ten countries with the biggest declines experienced at least one coup over the decade.
02:33Burkina Faso recorded the largest deterioration.
